Language Studies
What language studies can you do at Waverley College?
- Students in Years 5 and 6 study Spanish in the Junior School for two years.
- Students complete a compulsory 100 hours of a language in Year 8 in Spanish.
- Spanish becomes an elective in Stage 5 (Year 9). Students will then study that chosen language for two years.
- In Year 11 (Stage 6) students can choose one of two pathways in either language: a Beginner’s Course (no prior knowledge) or a Continuer’s Course (3 years prior knowledge).
- In Year 11 students also have the opportunity to study another foreign language (upon consultation) through the Open High School program.
Why study French and Spanish?
- Spanish has 400 million speakers across 4 continents.
- Spanish is the 3rd most widely spoken language.
- There are more native speakers of Spanish than of English.
What do you learn?
Generally students will learn their chosen language through a variety of topics, for example ‘your family’, ‘your school and studies’, ‘free time and sports’ – to name just a few. Oral skills will be honed through regular conversation practice. The other skills of Listening, Reading and Writing will also be regularly studied and the student’s understanding of grammar will be developed.
Learning is enhanced following the Liberate model. This means that students are taught using a blended approach, which allows for greater differentiation and Individual Education Plans. A plethora of resources are used to fully engage the students including creative cultural competitions to motivate the student a step further.
What experiential opportunities are there?
The Language Faculty offers some fantastic opportunities for language learners which include:
- Excursions to film festivals and restaurants
- Participating in the ‘linguafest competition’
- An overseas immersion trip to Spain/Latin America is being developed
- Taking part in a language exchange.
5 reasons why ONLY learning English is a bad idea:
- English is actually the first language of only about 5% of the world’s population and a second language for between only 5 and 10% more
- Being monolingual stunts your educational development
- Being monolingual restricts your ability to think and communicate
- You deny yourself the ability to fully appreciate and understand the world in which you live
- You will miss out on a whole different way of looking at the world.
5 reasons why learning another language is a good idea:
- You will develop a broader view of the world
- You will truly learn about at least one other culture
- You will prepare yourself properly for life after school in our globalised world
- You will be taking on a unique challenge
- It is fun!
